Nearly 100 affordable homes planned for Mississippi city

Nearly 100 affordable homes planned for Mississippi city

Aug. 22, 2017

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A combination of nearly 100 "lease to own" townhomes, duplexes, and single-family detached homes has been planned to help house a Mississippi city's area workforce.

Oxford Eagle reported on Monday a public-private partnership's recent $15 million awarding in competitive funding is the result of efforts over the years by Oxford and Lafayette County officials to address the difficulty of creating affordable housing with disproportionately high land prices.

A proposal by private housing advocacy nonprofit LOU-Home, Inc. overcame funding gaps using traditional bank lending with federal housing tax credits. Under the current proposal all units would be reserved for people who earn 60 percent or less of median income in the area.

According to a 2014 U.S. Census Bureau report, the median income for a household in Lafayette County is $41,343.